Here are the top 5 elements that should be included on lead driven websites.

1) Defining a Core Marketing Message – Why Are You In Business?

Time is limited, be sure to clearly define why you are in business, this will reassure visitors that your products and services are what they’re looking for. It’s important to make sure that your visitor does not have to search long and hard to find out who you are and what you can offer. Placing this information “above the fold” or in the top banner of the website will provoke interest (“above the fold” refers to the visible portion of a website before scrolling down).

2) Visible Contact Information On Every Page

This is the foundation for generating leads. Most business websites remember to include a ”contact us” page, however they often forget that people do not like to look around for information. Having quick contact forms and your phone number in the top right hand corner of every page can do two things for lead generation. First, it allows people to ask you a question or call you without having to leave the page they’re on. By placing this information on every page you reassure visitors that you can be contacted easily, thus encouraging them to call you of fill out your form. The more easily you can capture leads, the more opportunity you’ll have to close new business.

3) Include a Sales Funnel

A sales funnel always appears in top banner of your homepage. By implementing a proper sales funnel you can improve your conversion rates many times over. Sales funnels help to limit the clickpath towards a conversion page. When a visitor lands on your homepage a sales funnel grabs their attention with in 4 to 6 seconds and helps to encourage engagement and generate leads. Make sure that you clearly define the clickpath you want that visitor to take. Offer them clickable buttons, clearly defined services, and strategically placed, compelling text.

4) Call to Action Buttons

Call to action buttons should always be included within the sales funnel. People love to click buttons so include buttons that lead visitors to a service or product information. A good call to action button can either open a quick contact form or guide a visitor to a page focused on lead generation. For example, effective call to action buttons encourage visitors to “learn more” or “view services.” Your call to action can also lead to buttons that open quick contact forms such as “schedule a free estimate.”

5) Boast About Your Best Offers and Accreditations

What sets you apart from your competition? Do you have a limited time offer that will intrigue a visitor to learn more? Do you hold specific accreditations that are required for you industry that will install trust with visitors? Are you holding a sale or offering discounts on products and services? These are all things you’ll want to include within your sales funnel. These offers and accreditations will intrigue and excite visitors and grab their attention quickly; remember that within 4 to 6 seconds of landing on your site users will ask themselves: “what’s in it for me?”

It's Time To Generate Leads!

Including these 5 elements will help increase engagement and lead generation. A greater number of leads, means increased opportunity, which leads to more business! Generating a lead or making a sale online is the overall goal of most business websites, so make sure you include these elements in order to maximize your opportunities!

As I’ve mentioned before, when a visitor hits your website you need to show them what you do and provide an action for them to take.  The simplest way to do this is to feature your main products or services with the option to dive deeper into each one or contact you immediately.  The key however is to do this while avoiding a couple commonly made mistakes.  In an effort to help the world sell better online, here are two common errors that bug me.

Slide Shows And When I Avoid Them

Having your top banner work as a slide show can be a fun and engaging way to draw attention to your services, products and action steps.  Make sure however that you don’t force the visitor to have to wait through 3 slides to see an important service.  If different customers come to you for different services, keep your options static.  If all visitors come to you for the same thing go ahead and make it flash.  If I’m shopping for a bouquet of flowers, it’s fine to have a rotating banner showing me a new bouquet every 5 seconds because it’s essentially the same product.

Another suggested way to use the slide show is to change images or other graphical elements while keeping the options static.  Services 1, 2 and 3 can each be in their own little box while the background behind them or pictures are animated.  To sum this point up, my golden rule is: A visitor should never have to wait to take action or see an important option.

Playing To Both Hard And Soft Sells

Let’s stick with the flowers and say that I’ve got my featured bouquet in a nice box box on the top of the screen.  Many businesses I see will offer a big BUY NOW option which when clicked, takes me to the product details page to read and buy.  The problem with this is that I’m not sure if I want to buy it just yet, so the option is a little too pushy.  As a customer, I don’t know what’s on the other side of a link other than what the text tells me, which in this case is BUY NOW so I assume that that’s the only thing I get out of clicking.  Be sure to offer both options in your top banner, in this case BUY NOW and VIEW DETAILS would be appropriate.  The same goes for service based businesses.  Make sure you offer both options and don’t sacrifice one for the other.  A visitor should be able to click to learn more about an individual service, or click a button to get in touch with you right away.

I think you get the idea.  Make sure you plan your actions with different buyer personas in mind.  Each type of visitor who is looking for each potential product or service type should find something that will satisfy their need within the first 3 seconds.  Once they see that item, they should be able to choose if they are ready to get serious and buy, or just get more information.

Spontaneous

The spontaneous buyer shops with gusto.  They rush in, find something and get out.  This is typically your more impatient visitor with less concern for choosing the perfect item.  They tend to buy best sellers, featured products and new releases as they’re fast and easy purchases to make.  Make sure these items are front and center and easy to find for this visitor type.

Humanistics

This buyer is all about the human interactive experience.  They check ratings, read reviews and communicate with friends and family on what to buy.  They often head straight for the new releases section and then proceed to ask everyone what they think of each one before making a final purchase.  Make no mistake, they don’t do this out of a lack of confidence in their own decision making, they do it for the personal experience.

Methodicals

Methodicals are well organized, careful planners who think things through in steps.  Instead of clicking on impulse, they know what they’ve come for and they demand that you provide them with the tools to find it in a logical manner.  This persona will head for your categories, arrange the results by author and further filter by price in order to make a careful choice.  Cleanly broken down categories and subcategories with logical search and results display tools are what this visitor craves.

Competitives

Competitives like to shop by comparing products against each other by feature and price and then comparing your products and prices VS those of other companies.  This persona enjoys the feeling of control and power that comes with outsmarting the system and finding the best deal.

As you can see, there is a lot to think about.  Whether you're planning a new website or wanting to improve your existing one, trying moving browsing with one of these personas in mind, taking notes, and then moving on to the next one.  I promise that you’ll find something worth improving!

Sometimes, when we’re shopping online, we’re merely collecting information for a later purchase. Because of this, while your website may do a fantastic job of persuading your visitors to want your products, they still might not buy today. So how do we change that? Well, we need to create a sense of urgency by giving reasons why they should buy right now. When well executed, some of these techniques can have a fantastic effect on your overall conversion rate because you won’t be competing against customer procrastination.

Here are just a few of my own techniques for creating a sense of urgency with an eCommerce website:

1. The Limited Time Offer

Perhaps the most common way to discourage window shopping is to put an expiration date on your offer. “50% Off All Shirts Until Sunday!” will tell customers that they need to buy it now or the deal is gone. This can work for both special pricing and limited the products themselves. Oh that reminds me, I need to go get a Happy Meal today if I want that new toy, it is only out for a limited time and I really want it!

2. Only Four Left!

This technique, while similar to the one above, has one key difference. It’s repeatable with any product at any time. It can also be automated. Showing that you only have 4 in stock doesn’t mean that it’s never coming back once you’re out; it simply means they’ll have to wait for you to get more in stock. This also means that you can show stock levels on all products store-wide because it isn’t an offer, it’s simply a standard metric. The ‘offer’ part happens in the customer’s mind as they start to panic knowing that those 4 remaining bicycle seats might sell out at any moment.

3. Create Customer vs Customer Competition

This is a fun one. In fact, it’s my favorite of the bunch. Essentially what you are doing here is adding two pieces of dynamic information next to your 'buy now' buttons. The first, is how many are left in stock. The second, is how many people are on your website as of this moment. This is illustrated in the picture below.
What happens here is quite simple.  Any customers who would normally have left the page to continue shopping around.

4. Generate A Pre-Launch Buzz

This final method is a little different than the others in that it is a much more pro-active approach.

This is all about creating excitement about the product well before it has launched. This can easily be done by adding a counter to the website on the product page and your home page: Available in 1 day, 1 hour and 27 minutes. When properly positioned on the website in a highly visible area, this can create excitement about the product and can lead to customers coming back on the day to buy it as soon as it is available.

In order to make this fully effective however, we need to add one more additional element: an email form. Simply add a quick form which lets visitors fill out their name and email address to be notified when the product is available. When that email goes out, the sales will come in! These are just some of the clever ways in which we can encourage your visitor to buy immediately. The trick however, is to use them carefully and sparingly. If every product has a limited time offer, the power of the offer is lost. Feature a small number of key products at a time, and try to use a different product category for each. This way each offer captures a different type of potential visitor. This will widen your audience and further increase your ability to convert.

Happy selling!

First, let’s assume that you have well written, clear, customer driven content. When customers read your content they get excited about your product or solution and can identify with the problem of need that it addresses. If this is the case, great! If not then go back, read my last post and get writing!  Our next step is now going to be to plan the path that our visitor is going to take and present the options in a clear and easy to understand way.

Paving The Path Of Persuasion

The first thing we need to do is identify what the purpose of each page is and whether or not it is enough to convince a visitor to convert on its own. To do this, I always start by making a few assumptions:

1) This is the first page that the visitor has viewed

2) They probably won’t read every single word on the page (visitors typically skim)

3) They know nothing about me, my products or my services

With these 3 things in mind we can now start to build the various actions that will be found in and around our content.

1) What primary page or pages are essential for the client to read in order to convert?

2) What secondary pages might the visitor need to read to gain further knowledge on what we have to offer?

3) What is the final, ultimate conversion action? Email, phone call, buying a product etc.

For example, while the “About Us” page often provides some fantastic information to build credibility and trust in our company, it still doesn’t answer the most important question that our visitors are asking, “What’s in it for me?” This page then, is unlikely to persuade visitors into a direct conversion. We need to provide them with the other information needed to convert.

Adding Hard And Soft Calls To Action

Now that we have identified and prioritized the different paths our visitor may take next, we need to put up our road signs. There are a couple different ways that we’ll be doing this.

1) Adding links in a featured way, directly telling visitors that they need to click and learn. This is a hard call-to-action. For example:

Click here to learn more about SEO   or   

2) Look for keywords and phrases in the content that refer to the secondary pages and make those words links to those pages. This has both an SEO and a directional benefit. When a visitor sees mention of the topic, such as search engine optimization, they get curious and click on the word to learn more about it. Ensuring that we have a couple of these (don’t overdo it) on each page will help guide visitors through our website without pushing too hard. This is a soft call-to-action.

3) Providing a loud and clear call to the final conversion. If the visitor has read other pages, they may already be close to converting. We need to make sure that we provide that conversion action in a clear way on every single page of our website. A visitor should never have to hunt for your Contact Us link in the navigation. That’s out going to cut it! This action can be a quick contact form (such as the one on the left side of every page of our website) or a featured product. Make sure that it is located above the fold so that it’s easy to find. We don’t want our visitors to have to scroll and search to find it.

To Sum Up

What we’re trying to do here is guide our visitors on two levels. We’re offering various paths all branching off each other throughout the website while always keeping a direct line to the end goal available. If we simply put up a bunch of pages with information and a contact page, our visitors are not going to take the initiative to find that page and contact us. This is probably one of the most common misconceptions out there so I’ll say it again. Visitors will not take it upon themselves to contact you. You need to hold their hand and show them where to go.  We always want to be dangling the carrot of conversion in front of their nose. Hopefully, if we’ve done our job right, they’ll bite!

Always Be Testing

The first thing to know is that the changes I made as a result of constant testing.  In fact, I almost never sent out and email campaign with testing something.  I wouldn’t want to waste any opportunity to learn more about what does and doesn’t work.  Our email marketing solution WHICHABAM! was the platform on which I created, sent and measured my emails.  It is also fed directly into our Google Analytics account so that I can see if a change actually brought more leads in the door VS just more clicks in the email.  Remember, you always want to make sure that you are looking at the full picture.  Visitors from the newsletter aren’t worth anything to you unless they convert so make sure you traffic the full sales cycle.  WHICHABAM! helps us do this.  Sending mass emails from Outlook simply doesn’t cut it.  Not only can you not measure and improve, but you’ll probably get blacklisted for spamming in the process.

What Do I A/B Test?

Choosing what to test and creating your variation can be a fun little process.  Try to pick the element which has the potential to make the biggest impact.  If your visitor were to click on any one element, what would it be?  Start with that item first and then move on down the line from there.  If your email has a header, I recommend constantly testing the design and wording as that is the first thing your visitors see.  If you have a sidebar, test the text, imagery and placement of key action items.  Always remember, and this is important, to test one element at a time.  If you make 5 different changes you won’t know which change influenced the results.

Examining Version A

Let’s take a look at the key elements and their positioning in version A.  The first thing you may notice is that Version A has a few elements were are not in B.  This is because the metrics proved that while they may have generated some click action, they didn’t generate anything past the initial newsletter click.

• The sidebar was located on the right hand side.
• The blog posts were in the main content body, after the newsletter message.
• The background was white.

Here is a look at version A.  Click the image for a larger view.

Examining Version B

Version B was the result of a staged testing approach.  I tested different variations and placements of various items in version A until I found the right combination of elements.  All of this testing information was used to guide the design process.  These are the changes that separate version B from the original.

The sidebar was moved over to the left side.  The simple reason why this works is because visitors tend to read from left to right.  We wanted our bright orange button to get noticed first. The blog posts were moved to the sidebar directly below the orange button.  This made them much more accessible as visitors no longer had to scroll to find them. The background was changed to blue to make the content area easier to read. We removed the text link to Twitter and added graphical Facebook and Twitter buttons to the contact information to continue to build our readership.

Here is a look at version B.  Click the image for a larger view.

Here is a graphical look at the changes made.  The arrows represent where each item was moved to.  Click the image for a larger view.

The Results

Version B was dramatically better with an overall click-through improvement of 23%.  But guess what?  I’m still not satisfied!  I continue to test elements of the new version each and every week.  My focus is now on language and making subtle changes to headlines and calls to action.

To Sum Up

Making subtle changes to any marketing material can have a very dramatic effect.  The reason why internet marketing is so effective today is because it can be measured.  You can measure your ideas based on actual visitor behavior to find out how people respond to the changes.  Solutions like WHICHABAM! are imperative to running your campaigns properly.

Happy testing!

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Don’t Push. Pull Your Website Visitors

Many website owners write their copy with the intent to sell the website visitor. This is also known as a “hard sell” or “push marketing” approach since you’re trying to push your products or services on the potential customer. My own preferred strategy however, is to educate the potential client by flexing your knowledge muscle and allowing them to realize your genius through education. This “soft sell” approach all starts with understanding why they are visiting you in the first place.
In his book, Customer Centric Selling, Michael Bosworth does a fantastic job of explaining that to sell effectively you need to actively listen and ask questions first, instead of standing at the front of the room with a PowerPoint, rehearsed script and megaphone. When you truly understand the problems, needs, and wants of the client you can repeat this information back with a focus on the features or benefits of your product or service that solves their problem or satisfies their needs. Understanding your prospect shows that you have truly listened and understood where they’re coming from. You’re not pushing them to buy; you’re letting them describe what they need and relating that back to your product or service as the solution.

You need to do exactly the same thing with your website copy. Instead of pushing your customers, pull them in with content tailored to what they need and want. Show customers that you understand them, educate them, and when they are ready they will move onto the next step and take action - they will.

Think About Taking Action

The important thing to remember is that customers don’t want to have to read a novel before they are presented with the option to move forward. Unlike reading a mystery novel, people didn’t come to your website with the intent of being driven crazy before finding the answer. They come to the internet because they want answers and FAST!  If your website visitor is bored with the content you are offering they aren’t going to keep reading to find out what to do next.  So you will need to think the other way around.

Present Action First

Before going into the sales pitch in your copy, present the value (in a single phrase) and action first. Give those customers who have already been convinced by a past visit, another page or give the opportunity to convert. If they want to read more they will, but at least they’ll know where to go next when they’ve seen enough. Read my post on the importance of value propositions to get a solid understanding of this.

Get To The Point

This rule applies for headlines, action buttons and website copy. Don’t tip-toe around the subject; simply tell it like it is. I recently stumbled on a nice example of this. Lighting and Production Magazine has done a nice job with their top banner. They could have said, “We’ll light up your day” or something similarly vague. Instead, they kept it simple and said “For professionals working in the lighting and production industry.” See how they didn’t waste my time having to figure out what they do? They made it clear that I've come to the right place and they’ve given me two strong actions, “Subscribe now” and “view online edition”. This is clarity at its best!

To Sum Up – Just Say It!

You need to walk, talk and think like a customer. Try writing a mock review of your product or service as though you were the customer who had just purchased and loved it. How would you describe it from their perspective? What, specifically, did it GET you? Once you have learned to write for the customer, it’s time to persuade them to take action….but I’ll save that for my next blog!  To learn more about conversion make sure you also check out our post on Sales Funnels.

In other words, we have direct control over improving conversion – and we like that!

Perhaps the strongest element for conversion of any ecommerce website is the product details page. This is where you show the product off, give away all the details and hope that they’ll click the all mighty “add to cart” or 'buy now' button. There are many factors involved in optimizing these pages and this post is going to explore some of those elements. Finally, we’ll talk a bit about using website optimizer to multivariate test the different variations and find out which combination works best for you.  As we go along, be sure to click each image to see a larger preview.

Examining The Product Page

First, let’s take a look at the product page that I have created for the purpose of these explanations. At first glance it looks like a perfectly decent product page:

While this seems like a nice looking product page which we would normally assume would do well, the data may show otherwise. Let’s say that our conversion rate is less than 1% on this page. So how do we improve it? First, we identify the important elements to adjust and then we run tests to find out how visitors to respond to those changes.

Let’s start with the image.

1) A picture is worth a thousand words.

Take a look at the product image. How do the chocolates look. Do they look good? Is your mouth watering? Of course not, because you can’t see them!

Make sure you show the product in its best light. The very first thing we’ll do is replace the image with one in which the box is open and our customers can see how good the food looks. I can tell you honestly, I’d gladly eat a few.

2) Put the price and action in the forefront.

It’s important to make sure that you put the right things, in the right order. While it may seem logical to entice the visitor before you ask for the sale, it’s actually backward to what works online. The most important things to show your visitors, within 3 seconds are value and action. In this example it’s our image and the ‘buy now’ button.

In order to shift our focus, we’ll need to move the price and action up, push the text down and get our visitors looking at these elements in the right order. Here’s how that looks with the new image. Can you see how easy it now is to click on ‘buy now’?

3) Keep text simple and use bullets.

Finally, we’re going to make a few simple changes to the text. Visitors typically don’t read large blocks of text, they skim. They will gloss over the description looking for anything that may entice them to buy. With this in mind, we’ve put the flavors on their own line and made them loud and proud.

Whenever possible, try to use a quick description with a series of bullet points to emphasize the product benefits or features. It’s much less overwhelming and far easier to read.

Putting it to the test

Now I can sit here all day long and tell you what I ‘know’ or think will work but that would be a poor decision on my part. In the case of a product page, there are many variables, most of which are industry and product specific, which can influence a buying decision. So instead, let’s get your visitors to tell us by measuring their actions.

It’s time to bring in our favourite tool, Google’s Website Optimizer. With website optimizer, we can setup an experiment to test out all combinations of the above changes and find out which version converts the best. The process can be quite technical so for today, I’ll just be giving you the basic concept of how this works.

1) We create a multi-variant test within the product page, identifying each change as a variant within the page. We also identify our goal as the visitor clicking the ‘buy now’ button.

2) When the test goes live, each visitor is shown one of the 9 versions of the content and their actions are recorded.

3) Once enough traffic has gone through, the top performing combination is declared a winner and we can place these changes live to benefit from the increased conversion.

And there we have it. We’ve created our variations, tested it against actual visitor behavior, and not only do we know without guessing which version works but we’ve been able to improve our conversion rates on that page as a result! Our aim is to help our customers generate increased revenue from data driven decisions!

To Sum Up

Just to wrap this explanation in a bow, here is a quick re-cap:

1) Make sure the image sells the product wherever possible. A picture of a gift card is nice, but a picture of a gift card surround by cool stuff I’d like to buy is better!

2) Put the action first and the persuasion second. Once they see the action, they can decide if they want to click or continue reading, but never force them to read before clicking.

3) Keep copy clear, simple and use bullets to describe features and benefits. Remember, visitors don’t read – they skim.

4) Test, test, test! Never assume that you, or I, or anyone other than your visitors know what makes them buy. Run split and multivariate tests to find out, without a shadow of a doubt, what works.

Here is one last look at the original and final images. By the way the final image is a result of hundreds of product page tests. My bet is that it would win, but I’ll still always give the data a chance to prove me wrong!

One of the buzzwords that has become hot in the search engine marketing industry over the last year has been ‘conversion’.  More specifically – what things can be done to the pages that traffic is driving to so that we can encourage the visitor to complete the goal that we want them to achieve?

The first thing we want to ensure is that the page the visitor is landing on has relevant information on it to the keyword the visitor found the website on the search engine for.

Once we have confirmed this what can be done to ensure we are converting visitors to the goal that we want them to complete?

At TechWyse, we use several methods; we build sales funnels, ensure we are using conversion oriented content, and make sure the conversion point is easily recognized.

One of the most effective things that can be done to quantifiably measure visitor behaviour is to use heat maps to help understand what visitors are looking and clicking on when visiting a specific landing page.

To help you understand how heat maps work and why they can help improve conversion what better way to show it than a real life example?

How To Improve Conversion Using Heat Maps

Many clients come to us with landing pages (either in PPC or there actual public website) which have really sharp designs – but they don’t seem to convert.  By using heat maps we are able to begin observing data that we would not have considered otherwise.

Looking at the landing page below for example, it seems that the design is both professional and sales driven. 

Original Landing Page

Original Landing Page – Heat Map

After reviewing the actual heat map (below) we could see that there were many issues with what visitors were actually looking at.  Remember – this heat map represents a span of no more than 5 seconds of a person’s time and is the action people take in deciding whether to stay longer or bounce and visit another page.

Findings

Using the heat map analysis above, keep in mind that red means it has engaged the visitor, orange and yellow mean that they may slow down slightly and green means very light attention is paid.  Also note the lines and numbers as they represent the path the user takes when looking at the page and in what order.

After review, here are just some of the issues that the original landing page presented:

• Since we naturally notice color differentiation, the first thing looked at was the red starburst which actually has no click action or conversion related text.
• If you actually click on the image above you can see numbers which represent where the eyes start and the path that they follow.  In this case the eyes are all over the place.  The screen looks very messy.
• The action button in the top banner isn’t even observed in the scan of the page.
• The form is located below the fold for most browsers and even in this example is not even noticed.  This is another conversion item.

Revised Landing Page V1

Based upon the above results we decided to redesign the homepage.  The main goal was to remove clutter and have the visitor focus on items that created ‘action’.

Here was what we came up with:

Revised Landing Page V1 – Heat Map

The heat map below illustrates what the visitor began to see with the new landing page.

Findings

In this design concept the first thing the visitor looked at was an image of the truck.  This was also the most intense area for the visitor as illustrated by the red tone.  Following the viewing path the visitor then scans the main selling points listed in the top sales funnel then scans the logos, the form, then the image. 

The main issue with this landing page is the actual call to action (located in the top banner in light blue) isn’t looked at whatsoever. 

An improvement, but back to the drawing board.

Final Landing Page V2

In this version we kept the same design but made slight modifications according to our heat map findings.

• We changed the truck in the top banner from red to blue so it would blend with the site better and take attention away from the image and over to selling features.
• We changed the color of the main call to action in the top banner from blue to yellow and also changed the checkmarks for the top bullet points to yellow to attract attention.
• We moved the logos which previously appeared in the top banner to the bottom of the page where they would be visible if the user scrolled.

Final Landing Page V2 – Heat Map

Findings

Success!

• Visitor first sees the image but is not as fixated on it as previously.
• Visitor then moves to the main call to action and is the most engaged in this location.
• Visitor then also reviews the quick contact form.
• Visitor then investigates the offer in the top sales banner and is engaged.
• Visitor then goes back to the truck image
• Visitor then views the call to action in the top banner again.
• Finally – the visitor ends on the Truckers Assist logo.

When this entire exercise began, we thought we had a page that was designed nicely and was effective.  After building another landing page, testing and revising we quickly realized the issues the original landing page had and created a design that was more effective.

All items we would not have identified unless we used a heat map site scan tool!

Think this can help your web pages?  We can do the same thing for you that we did for this client.  To begin the process you can give us a call or fill out this form.

Heat Map Testing Tools

There are several tools available that can help you understand what visitors see when they come to your web pages.  The heat map tools we used in this example came from Attention Wizard and Feng-GUI and are recommended for people that want to quickly measure a concept.  Many thanks to them for building such a lovely tool!

Unfortunately this story is very common.  It happens every day to millions of websites all over the world.  Every second, millions of visitors take one look at a perfectly good website and run.  So why?

The most common reasons to fix this issue include;

• poorly targeted advertising resulting in attracting an uninterested visitor. 
• an unprofessional design or page loads so slow that visitors simply get fed up. 

But what if you have all of those bases covered?  Quite simply, it may be because you haven't provided them with the information they need to see to decide to stay within 3-5 seconds.   We have elaborated on the concept of 'sales funnels' in the past.  The purpose of this article is to discuss the importance of displaying an effective 'core marketing message.'

The Value of Value Propositions

A value proposition is a key phrase that tells customers what value they will receive for doing business with you.  In my own experience, the problem that most companies have is that they tend to create broad level slogans that are so cryptic that nobody understands what you do.  In this 'click happy' world it has never been so important to display a statement of value.  Your visitor needs to understand why your product or service will help them, and offer a method to learn more about this offer immediately upon visiting your website.  It needs to be clear, concise and simple enough for an 12 year old to comprehend.

Some of my favorite value propositions include:

Twitter:  "Share and discover what's happening right now, anywhere in the world."

Facebook:  "Facebook helps you connect and share with the people in your life."

And my current favorite…

Moore's Clothing Store:  "Well Made.  Well Priced.  Well Dressed."

So how then, do we go about creating one of these value propositions?  Here is a quick set of questions that you can use to test out your own value proposition ideas.

1. The "anyone can say that" test.  Run through your list of ideas and after each one say, "Anyone can say that."   If the statement feels true, it's probably not an effective value proposition.  Don't be too broad! 
2. The "Yes, but what do they DO?" test.  Just like the previous method, say this phrase after each one.  If the statement rings true, it's probably not going to pass the 3 second test.  Be descriptive!
3. Take a look at your service or product from a benefits perspective.  Why will I benefit from buying your new brand of glue?  Will it hold better?  Is it cheaper?  "We're stuck on customer service" simply isn't good enough.  "Our glue holds forever.  Guaranteed." — Now that's an offer you can't refuse!

Get It?

To sum up, make sure you put your statement to the test before splashing it across your homepage.  On the web, company slogans are useless unless they help to keep or convert visitors.  Show them value, give them something for nothing, feature an offer or product, clearly state what it is that you do – but please, please don't give them a fluff tag-line like, "Customer service you can count on." .  After all -  "Anyone can say that."

To learn even more please make sure to visit our blog on building an effective sales funnel for your website.